Posts Tagged ‘washington’

March 6th, 2017: BNSF Railway (BNSF) will be forced to pay for the cleanup of Pacific Northwest waterways that were polluted for decades by coal or petroleum coke (“petcoke”) emitted from their open-topped train cars. A finalized consent decree lodged with U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour today brings to a close a Clean Water Act case brought against BNSF by a coalition of environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, Puget Soundkeeper, Columbia Riverkeeper, Spokane Riverkeeper, RE Sources for Sustainable Communities, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and Friends of the Columbia Gorge.

October 6th, 2015: City of Vancouver correctly determined that NuStar's oil terminal would probably have a significant negative impact on the Columbia River and communities along it. Vancouver and its citizens will now have the opportunity to thoroughly study and explain the risks of NuStar's proposal. If the risks of oil spills, explosions, fires, and toxic air emissions cannot be reduced to safe and acceptable levels, the city can reject NuStar's project.

April 6th, 2015: Oil project update: City of Vancouver will require the NuStar Energy proposal to provide a full environmental impact statement (EIS), rather than a short-cut Environmental Assessment (EA). The EIS will allow the public to be more involved in the decision-making process for this project. The NuStar proposal is convert a bulk terminal to oil-by-rail at the Port of Vancouver.

March 20th, 2015: Let the Army Corps and our federal delegation know that that you think the federal government should take a hard look at the impact of shipping explosive, dirty oil through the scenic Columbia Gorge and down the Columbia River from the largest oil-by-rail terminal proposed in the United States.

March 17th, 2015: [ April 1, 2015; 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm. ] Please join us for a forum discussion on the oil industry's plan for Southwest Washington. Listen to the people and organizations that are in the middle of this fight! Learn what steps you can take to make sure that Southwest Washington remains safe, clean, and green. Save the date: 4/1 6PM at the Kiggins Theatre in Vancouver, WA.

March 17th, 2015: “State of the Hanford Site” meetings in Washington State: Saturday, March 28, 2015, from 9:30AM to 12:00PM in Vancouver. The meeting will involve both public interest and agency perspectives on the cleanup progress at Hanford. Opportunity to learn about the latest challenges and advances in cleanup at the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site. *Free and open to the public.

February 24th, 2015: Do you know Washington State’s dirty little secret? For decades, polluters in Washington have benefited from some of the nation’s least protective toxic pollution standards. We can change this. Right now the Washington Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are asking for public input on new laws that could make it harder—or easier—to discharge cancer-causing toxic pollution to our rivers. Comment today!

In May 2017, Hanford made national news when a tunnel containing highly radioactive waste partially collapsed, triggering a shelter-in-place order for nearby workers and prompting widespread concerns about Hanford’s aging nuclear infrastructure. The U.S. Department of Energy (Energy) filled the tunnel with grout, a form of cement. Now, Energy seeks to fill a second, larger tunnel with grout. if left in place, the pollution in the tunnels—known as the PUREX tunnels—could pose long-term risks to soils, groundwater, and the Columbia River.

PGE wants to increase smog-forming pollution at its Carty Generating Station, a 450 MW fracked gas-fired power plant. The plant began operating in 2016. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) new draft air pollution permit would allow the Carty Generating Station to emit 800% more volatile organic compounds, a key component of low-level ozone (smog) formation. Join Riverkeeper urging DEQ to hold PGE to its current pollution limits, and not to open the door to more pollution from PGE’s new fracked gas power plant. ACT NOW!